Phillip Island: Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) Racing Team rider Xavier Simeon battled his way to a hard-fought eleventh place in the Australian Grand Prix held at Phillip Island, Australia on Sunday.
The 27-year-old from Belgium started well from 20th place on the grid and held 15th place after one lap, then gained positions steadily until he broke into the Top Ten of the Moto2 field on the ninth lap.
With a little more top speed on the main straight, he could have gained even more positions, but Simeon found it difficult to attack out of the slipstream. In the end, he beat current world champion Johann Zarco, who finished in 12th place, but crossed the line just fractions of a second behind Frenchman Xavi Vierge and German Marcel Schroetter.
Team-mate Julian Simon also started strong and was as a high up as sixth after one lap. But as the race went on, the Spaniard ran into difficulties with the front end of his bike and finally crashed on lap ten, whilst still defending a place within the point rankings. Luckily, Simon walked away unhurt and is now determined to fight for a better result at the next round in Malaysia next weekend.
After the event, Simeon said; “I am very happy. I was able to break into the Top Ten and to fight for an eighth place. I had a very good feeling with the bike and I could ride very fast, so I enjoyed the race a lot. I had big fights with several other riders including Julian for some laps and it’s a pity he had a crash. I also fought with Zarco, so for me it was a good race.”
Simon said; “It was a difficult weekend due to the weather conditions, but I had a really good start in the race and I was going well on the opening laps. But as the race went on, I ran into problems and the bike got increasingly difficult to control.”
